Joe Schmidt confirmed Johnny Sexton failed a HIA after taking an accidental stamp to his forehead during Ireland's gritty 22-13 win over Scotland, but added he's hopeful that the outhalf could be involved in the trip to Italy in two weeks time.
The visitors got their first victory of the Six Nations campaign at Murrayfield thanks to tries from Conor Murray, Jacob Stockdale and Keith Earls.
An attritional afternoon was far from plain sailing, with Sexton making way for Joey Carbery in the first half and failing to reappear. The outhalf also has a graze and swelling on his leg.
"Johnny failed a HIA and he got a bit of stamp on his forehead," Schmidt told RTÉ Sport's Michael Corcoran afterwards.
"He wore a couple of fairly meaty contacts. That's the nature of the game."
The Irish boss explained that he did not believe there was anything malicious about the incident and that he thought it could have come from an Irish boot.
Schmidt also held out hope that Sexton could feature against Italy in two weeks.
"He seems to be doing quite well now though, so we're hopeful he'll be okay for the next game (against Italy on February 24).
"He copped a stamp at one point; I don't even think it was a Scottish foot, I think it was one of our guys who tripped over him.
"He got two knocks so they were cumulative, and he has a swollen ankle, but that's just swelling and he should bounce back from that pretty quickly."
The head coach took heart from a gutsy showing from his side, while admitting they're still struggling to hit full stride. A lack of rhythm and fluidity was again evident at times, but Schmidt is not unduly concerned, pointing out the impact of injuries and late decisions on the line-up.
"Scotland haven't lost here for three years in the Six Nations. It was never going to be anything other than a hard-fought victory," he added.
"Guys like Bundee [Aki] and Chris [Farrell], they haven't really trained together. Robbie [Henshaw] trained on Tuesday; well he did a bit of the training. We were hoping he'd through with that dead leg, even on Thursday, so Chris wasn't quite sure whether he was going to be in or not.
"Bundee and Chris haven't really played together since Wales last year.
"It is frustrating at the moment because we don't look cohesive out there. What we do look is spirited and incredibly determined.
"If you were to ask me before today if I'd take a 22-13 victory here, I'd have leaped at it. These guys are a super side, really well coached by Gregor [Townsend] and his team."
